Doppelgangers
by Chibi Guado
Summary: Selphie swaps places with a lookalike, resulting in mayhem. oh, just read it, im terrible at summaries!
1. Default Chapter

Doppelgangers  
  
Chapter 1 – Treachery, Lechery, Treason and Plot.  
  
Irvine wandered into the small dark room, in which Selphie, Quistis and Seifer were sitting around a small table in a conspiratorial huddle. Occasionally Seffie would nod her head, or trace a line across the huge map on the table, in response to something said by one of the others. What they were saying, he couldn't hear, so he just stepped in, spun Seffie's chair around and picked her up in his arms, kissing her madly. She struggled free suddenly, dropping to the floor wiping her icy-cold lips in disgust. Irvine stepped back; "Huh?" and was just about to say something else, when Seifer, rising from his chair like a tsunami, smashed him across the face.  
  
"Moron!" he snapped "Keep off my girl!" Irvine was understandably startled.  
  
"Your girl!" he yelled, furious, then looked pleadingly at Selphie,  
  
"Selphie?" her eyebrows were raised in amazement, and she seemed as shocked as Irv, until Seifer moved closer to her and put his arms around her protectively.  
  
"Not Selphie," he growled menacingly, daring Irvine to come any closer.  
  
The girl pulled herself free of Seifer's embrace, and smiled apologetically at Irvine.  
  
"I must apologise," she said, in a husky voice, much easier on the ear than Selphie's. "Sakuya Seito. I don't believe we've formally met."  
  
It took Irvine a second to realise that this was the girl he had been hearing about for the past few weeks. Seifer's girlfriend. She lived and worked in Garden, although no one was really sure why she was there. She tinkered with machines and computers, formulated elaborate battle strategies, and studied Aikido, often training in the Dojo there with Zell. Most importantly, her resemblance to Selphie was uncanny, and now attired in Selphie's clothes she looked just like her.  
  
Irvine apologised hurriedly, deeply embarrassed. She laughed, "Don't worry, I've already been slapped once by Rinoa. Selphie apparently walked in on one of her and Squall's 'Private moments' It's no big deal." Irvine grinned, Quistis sniggered, and even Seifer couldn't suppress a smirk at the thought of Squall being put off his stride by Selphie opening the door to the room. He snorted with mirth, then laughed, "I now present our doppelganger, Sakuya Seito!" Sakuya bowed low, "Call me Set," she said, in that hypnotic voice which froze the blood in their veins. Her resemblance to Selphie was, even on closer inspection, almost perfect, except for a few details which told them apart. Sakuya's face was more drawn and world- weary, and her skin was pale, tinged with grey at the tips of her fingers. Most importantly, her eyes were a bizarre shade of gold, something which only deep-green contact lenses would blot out.  
  
"Remind me again why we need a duplicate Selphie?" Irvine queried, as Set carefully applied the makeup that would transform her gothic appearance into the youthful and carefree look of Selphie. Seifer sighed, it seemed that he had been asked this question a hundred times before.  
  
"The Onion Deadthing concert is tonight - the same night as the SeeD ball. Selphie really wants to go to that concert, so since Set isn't a SeeD yet, she's going to the ball instead. Neither of them'll be missed." Irvine nodded slowly.  
  
"But what about me?" he asked, "Will we have to…" Sakuya shook her head.  
  
"I'm going to stage an argument between 'us', after the party we'll make up and get the real Selphie back." Irvine nodded, slightly reluctantly.  
  
At this point, the real Selphie entered the room, dressed in Sakuya's loose black T-shirt and heavy denim jeans, which were so wide they hid her shoes completely. Sakuya herself looked decidedly uncomfortable in the tight yellow dress, and kept fidgeting, which Seifer found very amusing. Selphie grinned at Sakuya, who returned the grin.  
  
"You look great!" they chorused, "No, you look nicer!" they both replied, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. The normally sombre Sakuya was getting into character already, hopping from foot to foot and smiling, exactly like Selphie. Selphie was leaning nonchalantly against a wall near the corner of the room, behind Seifer, and scanning the room with her false- gold eyes malevolently. She appeared lost in thought and brooding, a great achievement for the happy-go-lucky SeeD.  
  
Sakuya twisted her hair upwards into a wide flick, coating it with wax.  
  
"I don't know how you do this" she laughed, spilling wax on the floor and beckoning Selphie over to help. She fixed it up in a few minutes, and, as soon as she was finished Set whipped a baseball cap up off the table, and would have thoughtlessly pulled it on if Seifer hadn't snatched it out of her hand and dropped it onto Selphie's now tangled hair. He looked at the final result incredulously.  
  
"Surreal…" he murmured, seeing Selphie's innocent green eyes looking out of Sakuya's face. Irvine stepped forward and put an arm around each girl,  
  
"Don't ya just want both of 'em?" he drawled. Seifer eyed him suspiciously.  
  
"Even though she looks like Selphie, she's still mine." He warned. Sakuya shrugged free and put one arm around each of the arguing trenchcoat- wearers. She looked at Selphie conspiratorially.  
  
"Hmm…" she purred, "Don't ya just want both of them?" she drawled, mocking them both. Selphie giggled, then quickly got back into character. "Anyway," she croaked gruffly, trying to mimic Sakuya's low growl. "Where's Zell?" Quistis shrugged. "Training I suppose. He wasn't invited. Something about loud-mouthed idiots who'd eat all the hotdogs, burp loudly and embarrass us all." Seifer grinned "Damn!" he moaned, sarcastically, "What am I going to do for fun?" Quistis grinned back, "As I recall, Seifer, you weren't invited either. Something about not really being a SeeD?" He backed down hurriedly. "I'd better go, I've probably got things to do…" he muttered, and with that he left. The others slowly filed out, leaving the gothic doppelganger alone with her thoughts. She covered her dark gold eyes with tinted lenses to mimic Selphie's green, and set out to find Irvine.  
  
A few minutes later, Squall wandered idly down the corridor. Perfectly on cue there was a resounding crack, and Irvine flew out of a dormitory into the corridor, landing inelegantly on the floor.  
  
"And that's for everyone you ever hurt!" screamed Selphie's voice.  
  
"Selphie I…" he began. But stopped as he noticed Squall. He stood up, hurriedly, dusting the dust off his coat, and mumbled;  
  
"Nothin' wrong. Jus' a li'l woman trouble," before hastily retreating down the corridor, Sakuya's very convincing handprint burning into his cheek.  
  
Inside the dorm, Sakuya leaned against the wall nonchalantly, and looked at Seifer sitting at the desk, sketching idly on a sheet of paper with the words "From the pen of [sorry we didn't have your name]" printed onto it. He mumbled something, then said, "If you want to, we could escape out of the ball… maybe go somewhere more quiet?" Sakuya sniggered. He inclined his head and smiled.  
  
"I'll send an announcement over the PA, to ask Selphie Tilmitt to go to the Training Centre. I'll meet you there." Set nodded.  
  
"Let's not mention this to Selphie, I don't want to drag her reputation in the mud. She'd go mental." Seifer was about to speak, when Sakuya heard footsteps down the little used corridor. She motioned for silence, and smiled broadly as Selphie breezed into the room, in full costume.  
  
"Just putting the final touches on our outfits!" she giggled. Seifer stood up.  
  
"So I suppose I should go…" he purred smoothly, making Sakuya shiver. "Much as I wish I could stay…" Selphie pointed to the door firmly, and, deflated, he left.  
  
As soon as the door closed behind him, Selphie turned to Set and exclaimed,  
  
"I have a plan!" Sakuya raised her eyebrows. "How about we swap places?" she continued.  
  
"We are, remember?" explained Sakuya, "That's why you're dressed as me, and I'm dressed as you." Selphie giggled again.  
  
"I mean swap back – I pretend to be you pretending to be me!" Sakuya looked puzzled.  
  
"Why?" she asked "Don't you want to go to the concert?" Selphie smiled "I got free tickets for tomorrow's performance, you go tonight and I go tomorrow when this is all over. I really wanna see how they act when I'm not around." Sakuya shrugged. Pretty much the same as when you are around, she thought.  
  
"Whatever", she shrugged again and took her cap back gratefully.  
  
"Let Zell know," said Selphie, "And Seifer too, if you want. They won't be at the party so it doesn't matter." Sakuya smiled. Hmm, she thought. If only she knew how much it mattered that Seifer knew… better cancel our little meeting.  
  
They swapped their clothes back, and quickly washed off the makeup. Selphie set off as soon as they were changed to go to the party. Suddenly, Sakuya remembered.  
  
"Wait!" she yelled, but Selphie didn't hear, and she didn't know about Sakuya's plan with Irvine.  
  
Neither Seifer nor Irvine were anywhere to be found, but Sakuya eventually found Zell queuing for hotdogs in the cafeteria.  
  
"Zell!" she gasped "You wouldn't believe how glad I am that I found you. Look, you have to find Seifer and Irvine and tell them that it's Selphie at the party, not me." Zell looked utterly bemused. "Just repeat it!" she roared, exasperated, looking more feline than ever. Zell jumped back terrified.  
  
"Y-y-y-yessir!" he stuttered, and sprinted off in search of the conspirators. Set smiled, safe in the knowledge of a job well done, and set off in the Garden armoured vehicle to Balamb Arena.  
  
A few minutes later, the rapidly-accelerating, nearly-hyperventilating and severely panicking Zell crashed into the long-suffering physician, Dr Kadowaki. She had already treated him for indigestion-related injuries four times that week.  
  
"Right then." She said. Firmly casting Stop, and freezing Zell in his tracks. "You're confined to quarters until that wears off. Just a few hours…" she smirked, slowly pushing the paralysed Zell back to his quarters.  
  
"And stay there!" she yelled, locking the door behind herself, with Zell inside.  
  
Sakuya was gone, Zell was trapped, the message was lost, and Selphie was heading into the strangest night of her life. 


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Confusion, Illusion, Misunderstanding a Lot.  
  
  
  
Selphie skipped along the wide corridor to the Great Hall, checking her reflection every few seconds in the mirror-like windows. She was smiling, and humming a happy tune to herself, when she bumped into Irvine.  
  
"Heeey Irvy!" she called, and was very surprised when he didn't answer. She watched him walk into the hall then followed him in.  
  
Inside the hall a band was already playing, sounding a lot better than when she had organised it. The ball was one of the events in the new improved Garden Festival, which Selphie had long since resigned from running. Edea now organised the parties with a little help from Sakuya on the technical side of things, and Seifer when heavy things needed lifting. She smiled at the memory of watching Seifer struggle with lifting a huge mega-bass amplifier to the bracket set in the wall, then watch Rinoa levitate the next one up after it. Rinoa was less involved in SeeD activities now. She never helped take classes, or ate in the cafeteria with the others, or even stood on the bridge with Squall anymore. She was more aloof and proud than ever, she had never really been one of the gang anyway, but now…  
  
Selphie was interrupted from her brief reverie by Squall saying  
  
"Going into the party, or have you decided they aren't your thing anymore?" Selphie blushed, embarrassed. Rinoa had been really angry.  
  
"Sure!" she chirped, then wandered away from the doors and over to where Quistis, Xu and Irvine were standing. As she got there, Irvine turned to leave.  
  
"Hey! Wait!" she called to him, starting to get a little annoyed. Irvine turned around and laughed.  
  
"I don't like Selphie," he said callously "So why should I want to talk to you either?" The others laughed unkindly, and he strode off towards a group of new female cadets. Squall wandered over with Rinoa in tow.  
  
"What was all that about?" she asked. Selphie frowned.  
  
"I don't know." She sighed, maybe Irvine was too good to be true. She decided to go and do something about it, and stormed off after Irvine.  
  
She reached him at the other side of the room, surrounded by a group of tall young SeeDs.  
  
"As I was saying" he drawled, "They couldn't have defeated Ultimecia without me. I was really the star of the show." Selphie was taken aback, then ran over, reached up and kissed him, much to the surprise of the girls.  
  
Irvine seemed just as surprised, and jerked back, away from her.  
  
"What're you doing here! I thought I told ya to clear off! I don't like ya, and I don't wanna know ya!" he yelled. One of the girls stepped forward, a tall slim girl with silver-blonde hair, he put his arm around her shoulders.  
  
"Me and Lani here were having a good time until you showed up," he said, venom in his voice. "I suggest you let us get on with it."  
  
Selphie was close to tears. She ran back to Quistis, crying.  
  
"Quistis!" she sobbed "Irvine hates me!" Quistis pushed her back.  
  
"Of course he does, after today, who wouldn't?" Selphie stepped back, horrified. Even her closest friends were deserting her. There was a crackle from the PA system, and a voice cut through the music like a knife.  
  
"Would Selphie Tilmitt please report to the training centre, Section 16. I repeat, would Selphie Tilmitt please report to the training centre, Section 16 immediately." Selphie didn't even stop to wonder why, she just ran out of the hall, grateful for an excuse to leave.  
  
By the time she reached the training centre, tears were streaming down her face. Her hair was wilting and she found that she couldn't string a coherent sentence together without sobbing. She saw Seifer waiting at the end of the path, but ignored him. He had never really spoke to her, so why should she bother? He stepped out in front of her, a look of genuine concern on his face.  
  
"Baby," he murmured, cupping her tear-streaked face in his hand "What happened to you?" she looked up at him, and his green eyes fixed onto hers. She looked into his eyes, and found herself mesmerised by them, losing herself in their caring, loving expression. She fell into his arms and he held her tightly, resting her head against his chest and allowing the tears to fall freely onto his coat. He stroked her hair and whispered something, gently. She was surprised, this was Seifer – they had never really talked to each other, but here he was, comforting her. She relaxed, allowing herself to feel safe, and slipped her own arms around him. He sat down on the stone edge of the fountain and held her in his arms.  
  
After a few minutes her crying stopped, and her body relaxed completely. She had fallen asleep. He picked her up carefully, cradling her head in his arms and carried her back to his quarters. He lowered her carefully to the ground at the door only long enough to unlock it, then carefully set her down on the sofa.  
  
Some hours later, selphie awoke to the sound of someone singing, carelessly off key. The voice was deep and melodic, slightly accented, and was accompanied only by the hissing of a shower. Obviously, Seifer thought that she was still asleep, or he would never dare to actually sing. She remembered the karaoke last year, when he had been asked to sing a duet with Sakuya. Both of them had agreed, but then mysteriously vanished. Seifer's confidence apparently ended as soon as someone handed him a microphone. The singing degenerated to a mumble, then the shower stopped abruptly. There was the sound of someone unfolding a towel, then a click as the door opened, to reveal Seifer in a grey dressing-gown that looked spookily similar to his trenchcoat.  
  
Selphie struggled to sit up, feeling slightly undignified, she had just fallen asleep, probably on Seifer….. she shook her head. Well, she thought, at least she didn't have to pretend to be Sakuya anymore, the party was probably over, and Sakuya would be home in a few hours. She grinned, but Seifer's look killed her. He was hurt, and angry. She looked at him questioningly, wondering what was wrong. Under the flush that the heat of the shower had given him, his skin was a pallid grey. He was visibly shaking.  
  
"I watched the CCTV of the party." He stated, coldly. "I thought it was settled, you wouldn't go anywhere near Irvine. You know how much it cuts me up to see you with him, when you know that you belong with me." Selphie was amazed.  
  
"But I belong with Irvine!" she protested. "I don't belong with you! You're Seifer! Im Selphie, remember?" seifer frowned.  
  
"Come on," he said "Its just me. You don't have to pretend anymore. You know that I love you, and I thought that you loved me." Selphie opened her mouth to speak, and he took the oppurtunity to kiss her. She struggled free, and ran to the other side of the room. He wiped his lips in despair, and said:  
  
"You really don't love me, do you? You prefer that cowboy, Irvine." Now it was Selphie's turn to frown,  
  
"Of course I prefer Irvine! Who wouldn't! He's nice, and kind, and funny, and virtually the exact opposite of you! And I love him!" she yelled. Seifer snarled, then turned away, locking himself in his bedroom. He searched the room for his clothes, pulling it apart in the process, throwing the picture of himself and Sakuya into the wall so hard that the frame broke and the glass shattered. The flying shards cut his face, but he didn't care. All he wanted now was revenge. He pulled on his black jeans and heavy Doc Marten boots, the oxblood leather cracked with time. A maddened search found his cross T-shirt, and he pulled it on one-handedly. His other hand was searching frantically under the bed. He smiled evilly as his palm closed around the steel handle of his gunblade, and drew Hyperion out into the wreckage of the room. He tested the blade, then brought it down onto a chair, shearing through the solid oak as if it was butter.  
  
"Excellent," he hissed, his eyes gleaming a malevolent green, "This'll teach Irvine not to mess with the big boys. Well, he can have his whore, if he escapes with his life!" 


	3. chapter 3

1 Chapter 3: Fighting Breaks Out, as Tempers get Hot  
  
  
  
Seifer stormed through the dark corridors of Garden, his eyes aflame with rage as he searched for Irvine. Even Squall didn't dare get in his way when he was in this foul mood. He stopped outside Irvine's room, and smashed at the door with Hyperion's handle.  
  
"Kinneas!" he roared "Out here now, I want a word with you!" he smashed on the door again, and continued to do so until it slowly opened, revealing the effeminate SeeD dressed in a purple shirt and his usual leather trousers.  
  
"What's the matter Seifer?" he drawled "Worried that your girl fell for me?" Seifer only became more enraged. "You saw her at the party too, it was all ah could do to keep her off me." He laughed. Seifer growled, then lunged, bearing the SeeD into a wall, where he held him up in one hand by his shirt. He ran the gunblade along Irvine's throat.  
  
"You may want to take that back, Kinneas" he purred "Or something nasty could happen." Irvine struggled. "Don't make me kill you." He continued "Just stay away from my girl." He dropped the cowboy to the floor, where he staggered and then fell over. He stood up wheezing.  
  
"I don't want her!" he gasped "She came to me, I had to push her off!" Seifer smacked him in the face with the gunblade's handle, following up with a strike from the blade, then a few sharp kicks to the man's groin.  
  
"Liar!" he snapped "She loved me, until you came along! How did you do it? What could you offer her that I couldn't?" Irvine coughed, and blood trickled out of his mouth onto the floor.  
  
"I don't know…." He whispered hoarsely "I don't…." then his head fell to the floor, lifeless. Seifer sobered up immediately; he had wanted to kill him… his wish might have been granted.  
  
"Bollocks" he muttered, then picked up the unconscious Irvine, slung him over one shoulder and sprinted to the infirmary, moving suprisingly fast for a man with someone draped over his shoulder.  
  
"Emergency!" he yelled, bursting through the doors of the infirmary and dropping Irvine onto a bed. He tried a curaga, but it didn't seem to do very much, and in desperation began to pour as much magic into the lifeless Irvine as possible. He hadn't expected this to happen… he'd just wanted to warn him off… Dr Kadowaki arrived looking flustered, she knew all about Seifer's slight anger problem, and had had to treat the casualties of it before. She tried a phoenix down, then cast a few curagas, before attaching him to a machine which Seifer couldn't even guess the function of.  
  
"Come on, come on…." She muttered, frantically injecting something into Irvine's arm. Seifer stood back, bemused, ashamed that he had almost killed someone he almost counted as a friend. Great, he thought, Irvine unconscious, Selphie out somewhere in Balamb, Sakuya hating him… this day couldn't get worse. Suddenly the PA system crackled into life, and announced "Perimiter violation! Warning! Warning! SeeDs must not leave the garden after the hours of 23:00 or before 5:00 field operatives will be sent to stop curfew violators! Warning! Warning!" Seifer growled, Sakuya was allowed to come and go as she pleased from Garden, she wasn't used to the strict hours maintained by SeeD personnel. And now that she had left the building, who knew what she would do next? In her current frame of mind, she seemed ready to kill.  
  
Suddenly, he knew where to go,where she always went when she was angry, and where she had arranged to meet Selphie. There was a bar, The Raven, just outside Garden, which Sakuya always went to. She never drank, but would sit for hours at the bar, listening to life passing around her. She said it was a nice break from the madness of life, just watching the world go by.  
  
He set off, ignoring the aged gatekeeper, the fourteen security staff dispatched to stop him from leaving, the mob of junior students who were following him and the T-rexaur nest he disturbed on the way there. All he knew was that he had to find her.  
  
He arrived at the Raven out of breath and bedraggled, covered in mud and pieces of T-rexaur skin. He handed Hyperion to the bemused bouncer, asking him just to wipe the blood off the blade while he was gone, and headed inside. What he saw was confusing to say the least. There were two figures at the bar, one in black and one in yellow, and the one in yellow was clutching a cocktail glass like a lifeline, and crying into it. The other wasn't drinking at all, and was just watching the world go by.  
  
Realisation dawned. 


End file.
